At some point, can we make the Fourth of July great again?

Last year, in the quasi midst of the presidential election, I wrote about the rough shape the country was in, thanks to the malign presence of Candidate Trump. Here's some of what I had to say:

And WE ARE NOT OK.

We'll all be spending the next x months watching him trash our country and its institutions. Trash anyone he doesn't like, or has the audacity to say they don't like him. Lie like there's no tomorrow - which, come to think of it, there may well not be. Spew gibberish, physically and mentally deteriorating before our very eyes - a deterioration seemingly beneath the notice of the press that's too focused on Joe Biden's gingerly shuffling along in the orthopedic sneakers he wears to help with his peripheral neuropathy. (Note to readers: I, too, wear orthopedic, orthotically-enhanced sneakers to help me cope with my peripheral neuropathy.)

Little did I know then just what horrors we were in for once the lying, narcissistic, thoroughly despicable, malign, vengeful, corrupt, nasty, ignorant, self-dealing, nasty, moronic, petulant, venal, etc. (words fail me) won the election and took office. Without the offset of a handful of decent, reasonable "guardrails" (Kelly, Millley, Coates, Tillerson et a few other als) he had around him during his first term. Only to replace them with a cadre of incompetent, equally lying, equally despicable, equally malign enabling suckups who are hell bent on destroying the country, and maybe even the world while they're at it.

At least destroying the country we used to have. 

You know, the country where masked, no-name thugs didn't kidnap people off the street and squirrel them away without due process. You know, the country where competent women, POC, LBGTQ, etc. could succeed in positions once occupied exclusively by white men. You know, the country that was a bastion of rule of law and individual freedom. You know, the country that led the world in scientific discovery. You know, the country that once welcomed immigrants (including my mother, thank you). You know, the country that wanted people to vote in elections. You know, the country that helped rebuild Europe and Japan after WWII. You know, the country that was at least occasionally, and often kicking and screaming, capable of admitting some not-so-glorious elements of its history - and learning from them.

Etc. Make that a big ETC. There has been, and can continue to be, a whole lot of good about the USA. Imperfect, surely, but a whole lot of good, too.

JFC, I really do want to get back to a Fourth of July when I can enjoy the cornball patriotic sing-alongs. The flag waving. The chest-thumping. The fireworks. The reading of the Declaration of Independence. Cupcakes with red-white-and-blue sprinkles on the frosting. Sparklers. 

This year, I just want to sit in bed with the covers over my head and cry.

I'm in the early stages of planning where to spend the Fourth next year so that I do not have to watch Trump preside over the 250th anniversary of what has often been a grand and glorious experiment in democracy, but which has rapidly developed into an authoritarian, militaristic, nihilistic shambles. 

Ireland, maybe. That's always good. Iceland. I've never been. O, Canada. If they'll let us in. 

Last year, we were so not OK. This year, it's orders of magnitude worse. 

What's the quote from Albert Camus?

Oh, yeah, here's the one:

And I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. 

Me, too. 

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Image Source: Newsweek